National Security Adviser M. K. Narayanan was on Saturday night appointed Governor of West Bengal and former Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil will head the Raj Bhawan in Punjab as President Pratibha Patil cleared a list of five new Governors in different States.
75-year-old Narayanan, a former IB chief, moves to the Raj Bhavan in Kolkata after a five-year stint as NSA, which creates a vacancy in the NSA’s post for which former foreign secretaries Shyam Saran and Shivshankar Menon are believed to be the front runners.
Shivraj Patil, who had to resign as Union Home Minister in the wake of the Mumbai terror attack in November, 2008, has been appointed Governor of Punjab and given the additional charge as Administrator of the union territory of Chandigarh, a communique issued by Rashtrapati Bhavan late on Sunday night said.
Jharkhand Governor K. Sankarnarayanan was shifted to Maharashtra to replace former Nagaland chief minister S. C. Jamir and senior Congress leader M. O. H Farooq will be the new Governor of Jharkhand.
Mr. Farooq was a former Chief Minister of Pondicherry and a union minister in the government of P.V. Narasimha Rao.
Mr. Sankaranarayanan will serve the remainder of his term in Maharashtra, the communique said.
Former Defence Secretary Shekhar Dutt was appointed Governor of Chhattisgarh from where E. S. L. Narasimhan moves to Andhra Pradesh Raj Bhavan to succeed N. D. Tiwari who quit in the wake of a recent sting operation by a TV channel.
Mr. Narasimhan, also a former IB chief, will also serve the remainder of his term in Andhra Pradesh.
Senior Congress leader Urmila Singh will be the new Governor of Himachal Pradesh from where Prabha Rau was transferred to head the Raj Bhawan in Rajasthan where she will serve the remainder of her term.
The appointment of the Governors will take effect from the dates they assume their duties, the communique said.
The names of the Governors were cleared at a meeting between Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday.
